Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.arcliive.org/details/GhristianeducatiOOmagerich 


^^^^ 


s^^"*  ^' 


ftHmkAi  tmtlt  Cibrary. 


Christian  education  in 
Ibe  DarK  J!ge$ 

(a.  d.  476— a.  d.  1 100) 


REV.  EUGENE  MAGEVNEY,  SJ* 
Saint  Ignatius  College,  Chicago,  III. 

B^rinted  by  permission  from  the  American 
Catholic  Quarterly  Review  Oct.  1898 


New  York  : 

HB  Cathedrai,  Library  Association, 

123  East  50TH  Strbet. 


1900. 

third  edition. 


Introduction. 

I N  preienting  this,  the  fint  iirae  of  the  teriei, 
which  we  trust  will  contain  many  numben, 
we  wish  to  point  out  that  the  apparently  wilful 
misrepresentation  of  the  part  enacted  by  the 
Catholic  Church  and  Catholic  Educators  in  the 
development  of  education  in  the  pretentious  his. 
tories  of  Pedagogy,  which  have  so  long  been 
before  the  reading  public,  have  made  it  necessary 
for  steps  to  be  taken  to  make  the  truth  known  to 
American  readers.  The  most  crass  ignorance 
prevails  with  regard  to  education  in  the  dark 
ages.  This  reprint  of  an  able  and  attractive 
article,  will,  we  trust,  be  found  timely.  We 
reapectftiUy  solicit  the  co-operation  of  all  fair- 
minded  people  in  our  endeavor  to  present  the 
other  side  of  the  question  that  has  suffered  so 
much  heretofore  by  misrepresentation  or  sup- 
pression.   * '  Audiatur  et  altera  pars. " 

The  Cathedral  Library  Association. 


"3^ 


THE  fifth  century  closed  in  darkness, 
and  as  we  look  at  the  situation  of 
affairs  which  immediately  followed,  not 
with  the  jaundiced  eye  of  a  prejudiced 
critic,  but  with  the  candid  fairminded- 
ness  of  one  in  search  of  the  truth,  the 
wonder  is,  not  that  the  times  were  dark 
but  that  there  was  any  light  at  all. 
Historians  of  the  school  of  Hallam,  and 
especially  Robertson,  whom  the  Protest- 
ant Maitland  characterizes  as  "a  very 
miserable  second-hand  writer,*'  find  it  to 
their  interest  somehow  to  besmirch  the 
memory  of  the  monks  of  old,  while  they 
heap  mountains  of  calumny  and  gross 
misrepresentations  upon  a  system  of  re- 
ligious institutions  of  whose  supernatural 
nature  and  purport  they  understood  ab- 
solutely nothing.  Their  broad  and  un- 
substantiated assertions,  sad  to  say,  are 
allowed  by  many  to  pass  unchallenged. 
While  the  continent  of  Europe  was  swarm- 
ing with  barbarians  and  weltering  in 
blood;  while  its  towns  and  cities  with 
their  amassed  treasures  were  given  over 
to  pillage  and  fire;  when  all  seemed  lost, 
the  monasteries  became  the  sole  reposi- 

5 


Christian  Educatio7i 


tones  of  learning,  and  continued  so  for 
many  a  long,  long  day.  This  is  the  in- 
contestable fact  as  it  confronts  us  upon 
the  page  of  history,  and  the  most  inge- 
nious combinations  of  talent  and  bigotry 
have  never  been  able  to  disprove  it. 

We  have  seen  how  from  the  very  out- 
set monasteries  became  educational  cen- 
tres. We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  in- 
tellectual atmosphere  which  they  de- 
veloped if  we  bear  in  mind  that,  with  few 
exceptions,  the  early  fathers  and  doctors 
of  the  Church  had  been  monks  or  were 
educated  in  monasteries — Athanasius,  Ba- 
sil, Chrysostom,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Je- 
rome, Augustine,  Fulgentius,  Sulpicius 
Severus,  Vincent  of  Lerins,  Cassian,  Sal- 
vian,  and  much  later,  Gregory  the  Great 
— not  to  speak  of  others,  the  bare  men- 
tion of  whose  names  is  guarantee  suf- 
ficient of  the  educational  value  of  the 
ancient  monastic  training.  It  was  the 
profound  learning  of  these  mighty  ones 
of  the  elder  time,  as  embalmed  in  their 
imperishable  works,  which  for  centuries 
presided  over  the  development  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine  and  formed  the  groundwork 
of  Scholasticism  in  a  subsequent  age. 
The  immortal  "Summa"  of  the  Angeli- 
cal Doctor  did  but  codify  and  systematize 
truths  upon  which  these  primitive  writers, 

6 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages r 


pupils  of  the  monasteriet,  had  rung  the 
magnificent  changes  ages  before.  At  the 
end  of  the  fifth  century  the  West,  like  the 
East,  had  become  fruitful  in  these  nurse- 
ries of  learning,  and  when  the  municipal 
schools  disappeared  with  the  fall  of  the 
Empire,  children  were  driven  to  have  re- 
course to  them  for  whatever  learning  was 
saved  from  the  universal  wreck. 

There  was  one  flaw,  however,  in  the 
monastic  system  as  it  then  existed,  and 
that  was  the  lack  of  proper  organization, 
in  default  of  which  satisfactory  and  per- 
manent educational  results  were  less 
readily  attainable.  The  evil  was  reme- 
died by  the  great  patriarch  of  the  West, 
St.  Benedict,  who,  a.  d.  529,  at  Monte 
Cassino  laid  the  foundations  of  an  order 
destined  to  absorb  or  supplant  all  pre- 
vious monastic  institutions  in  the  West 
and  keep  alive  in  its  cloisters  the  torch  of 
learning  amid  the  worse  than  Cimmerian 
darkness  deepening  around.  That  it  filled 
a  pressing  need  is  obvious  from  the  ra- 
pidity with  which  it  spread.  Before  the 
end  of  the  century  in  which  it  was  born 
Benedictines  were  in  every  country  labor- 
ing and  praying  and  teaching,  and  by 
the  disinterested  holiness  of  their  lives 
pointing  the  way  to  an  elevation  of 
character  and  a  meed  of  civilization  of 


Christian  Education 


which  the  barbarian  had  never  heard  or 
dreamt. 

The  time  of  the  monks  was  devoted  to 
the  inculcation  of  a  knowledge  which  to 
us  seems  scant  enough,  though  it  was 
considerable  then.  It  was  mainly  ecclesi- 
astical in  character.  The  fact  is  quite  in- 
telligible when  we  remember  that  the 
principal  object  of  education  in  an  age  so 
barbarous  was  not  so  much  cultivation  as 
civilization — finish  as  foundation.  What 
youth  needed  most  was  to  outgrow  its 
savage  environments,  and  to  this  secular 
education  was  far  less  conducive  than  fa- 
miliarity with  the  truths  of  Holy  Writ 
and  the  fruitful  suggesiiveness  of  the 
Church's  liturgy.  Besides,  the  primary 
^object  of  the  monastic  schools  was  to  train 
*  aspirants  to  the  religious  or  priestly  state, 
and  it  was  only  as  a  matter  of  necessity 
that  they  were  thrown  open  for  the  pa- 
tronage of  students  intended  for  mere 
secular  avocations.  Many  were  put  in 
the  monasteries  when  very  young;  some 
even  in  their  infancy.^  This  was  ren- 
dered more  or  less  urgent  by  the  prevail- 
ing disorders,  and  found  abundant 
sanction,  secular  and  ecclesiastical,  in  the 
admitted  customs  of  the  times.  Thus, 
for  instance,  St.  Boniface,  the  great  apos- 

I  See  Appendix  p.  55,  note  i. 

8 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages r 


tie  of  Germany,  became  a  monk  when 
only  five  years  old.^  Venerable  Bede,  as 
he  tells  us  himself,  entered  the  monastery 
of  Wearmouth  at  seven;  while  St.  Bruno, 
as  late  as  the  tenth  century,  was  com- 
mitted to  the  monks  at  Utrecht  at  the 
advanced  age  of  four  years.  About  the 
age  of  seven,  children  began  the  work  of 
education  proper  by  learning  the  Psalter. 
It  was  of  obligation  for  all  monks  and  ec- 
clesiastics to  know  it,  and  accordingly  it 
was  the  first  thing  taken  up.  When  they 
had  mastered  it  they  entered  upon  their 
course  of  profane  study,  which  consisted, 
presupposing  the  acquisition  of  reading 
and  writing,  of  the  three  fundamentals; 
grammar,  rhetoric  and  logic,  which  con- 
stituted what  was  called  the  Ttiviufn; 
and  the  four  mathematical  and  more  ad- 
vanced sciences  of  arithmetic,  music, 
geometry  and  astronomy,  which  were 
known  as  the  Quadrivium,  The  two  to- 
gether embraced  what  was  called  '  'The 
Seven  Liberal  Arts."  By  "grammar** 
was  understood  something  more  than  ety- 
mology, syntax  and  prosody.  It  included 
rhetoric  and,  in  a  measure,  the  study  of 
literature.  '  *  Rhetoric'  *  in  turn  was  rather 
declamation  and  public  speaking.  By 
*  *  music  ' '  was  understood  the  science  as 

a  See  Appendix  p.  56,  note  2. 


Christian  Education 


far  as  acquaintance  with  it  then  extended, 
which,  we  may  suppose,  was  considerable 
in  some  cases  when  we  bear  in  mind  that 
Gregorian  chant  takes  its  name  from  a 
monk  in  the  sixth  century.  Pope  Gregory 
the  Great,  whose  famous  school  of  chant 
was  for  a  long  time  prominent  and  be- 
came the  model  of  many  others  subse- 
quently founded  in  Germany  and  France 
by  Saint  Boniface  and  Charlemagne.' 
The  language  spoken  in  the  class-room 
was  Latin,  and  children  were  required  to 
master  it  even  before  the  vernacular.  The 
literature  studied  was  mainly  Roman. 
In  fact,  the  whole  monastic  educational 
system  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to 
that  of  the  ancient  municipal  schools  of 
the  Empire,  already  described.  "The 
curriculum,"  says  Cardinal  Newman, 
* 'derived  from  the  earlier  ages  of  heathen 
philosophy,  was  transferred  to  the  use  of 
the  Church  on  the  authority  of  Saint  Au- 
gustine, who  in  his  De  Ordine  considers 
it  to  be  the  fitting  and  sufi&cient  prepara- 
tion for  theological  learning.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  history  of  its  for- 
mation; we  are  told  how  Pythagoras  pre- 
scribed the  study  of  arithmetic,  music  and 
geometry;  how   Plato  and  Aristotle  in- 

3  See  Appendix  p.  57,  note  3. 


in  the  *  'Dark  Ages. 


sisted  on  grammar  and  music,  which, 
with  gymnastics,  were  the  substance  of 
Greek  education;  how  Seneca  speaks, 
though  not  as  approving,  of  grammar, 
music,  geometry  and  astronomy  as  the 
matter  of  education  in  his  own  day;  and 
how  Philo,  in  addition  to  these,  has 
named  logic  and  rhetoric.  Saint  Augus- 
tine in  his  enumeration  of  them  begins 
with  arithmetic  and  grammar;  including 
under  the  latter,  history;  then  he  speaks 
of  logic  and  rhetoric;  then  of  music,  un- 
der which  comes  poetry  as  equally  ad- 
dressing the  ear;  lastly  of  geometry  and 
astronomy,  as  addressing  the  eye.  The 
Alexandrians,  whom  he  followed,  ar- 
ranged them  differently,  viz.,  grammar, 
rhetoric  and  logic  or  philosophy,  which 
branched  off  into  the  four  mathematical 
sciences  of  arithmetic,  music,  geometry 
and  astronomy." 

Greek  was  studied  very  little  and  an 
acquaintance  with  its  literature  was  indi- 
vidual and  exceptional.  Hence  it  does 
not  figure  extensively  in  the  class-room 
until  quite  late.  It  was  indeed  a  rare  ac- 
complishment, and  with  the  vast  majority 
served  no  higher  purpose  than  an  elegant 
affectation.  Bede,  Alcuin,  Paschasius  and 
others,  we  are  told,  were  familiar  with  it, 
and  it  is  no  more  than  likely  that  they 
II 


Christian  Education 


taught  it  to  some  of  their  pupils,  without, 
however,  giving  it  in  the  school-room  the 
prominence  enjoyed  by  Latin.  In  a  few 
of  the  monasteries,  notably  that  of  St. 
Gall,  it  was  studied  and  taught,  and  from 
a  very  early  date.  With  time  it  came 
into  more  general  use  and  played  a  more 
conspicuous  part  in  later  monastic  curri- 
cula. This  impulse  given  to  its  pursuit 
was  due  to  Charlemagne,  who  set  the  seal 
of  his  royal  approbation,  so  to  speak, 
upon  it  and  made  its  cultivation  the 
fashion  by  having  it  taught  in  the  college 
of  Osnaberg,  established  by  him,  and 
which  attained  some  renown,  but  whose 
history  is  lost  in  the  darkness  and  con- 
fusion which  enveloped  the  period.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  some  of  the  most  pro- 
ficient Greek  scholars  of  the  mediaeval 
times  were  women.  In  fact,  having  the 
same  and  in  many  cases  better  facilities 
for  mental  improvement  than  the  men, 
and  having  more  time  on  their  hands  and 
nothing  but  serious  books  within  reach, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  ladies  of  those 
days,  whether  nuns  in  convents  or  dames 
at  court,  did  much  to  foster  the  thorough 
cultivation  of  the  classics — Hebrew,  Latin 
and  Greek.  Very  many  or  them  wrote 
Lotlii,  and  a  few,  Greek  verse  with  finish 
and  ease.     Saint  Radegundes,  a  nun  of 

12 


in  the  '  'Dark  Ages, ' ' 


the  sixth  century,  found  leisure  for  the 
study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  patristic 
commentaries.  Among  the  friends  of 
Saint  Boniface  was  a  community  of  Eng- 
lish nuns  remarkable  for  their  classical 
attainments,  many  of  whom  at  his  request 
followed  him  to  Germany  and  there 
opened  schools  for  girls.  Foremost  among 
them  was  Saint  Ivioba,  who,  it  is  narrated, 
was  thoroughly  versed  in  the  Scriptures, 
the  writings  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  fath- 
ers, and  the  canons  of  the  Church.  The 
nuns  in  the  convent  of  the  famous  but 
unfortunate  Heloise  studied  Greek  as  well 
as  Latin,  Hebrew  and  Arabic;  while  of 
another  we  are  told  that  vshe  familiarized 
herself  not  only  with  the  Greek  and 
Latin  classics,  but  also  with  the  philoso- 
phical works  of  Aristotle. 

Physical  science,  as  might  be  expected, 
was  far  less  developed  in  the  monastic 
schools  than  the  study  of  language. 
Many  of  the  monks  lectured  and  wrote 
upon  such  subjects,  some  of  them  volumi- 
nously, but  their  views  in  most  cases,  if 
not  groundless  surmises,  were  at  least 
broader  than  their  premises,  and  in  the 
light  of  subsequent  investigation  and  dis- 
covery have  proven  the  merest  puerilities. 
But  for  all  that  it  is  to  their  credit  that 
despite  the  odds  against  them  they  fos- 


Christian  Education 


tered  a  spirit  of  scientific  inquiry  at  all 
and  while,  on  the  one  hand,  it  does  not 
add  much  to  our  stock  of  information  to 
be  told,  for  instance,  as  Rabanus  Maurus, 
one  of  the  mediaeval  lights,  tells  us,  that 
the  mouse  and  house-fly  came  originally 
from  Greece,  and  that  birds  are  divided 
into  big  birds  and  little  birds,  in  which 
latter  class  he  puts  the  wasp  and  the  lo- 
cust, yet,  on  the  other,  it  is  a  subject  of 
wonder  to  see  what  acquaintance  Bede, 
and  centuries  later  Albertus  Magnus,  had 
with  matters  whose  discovery  we  are  ac- 
customed to  look  upon  as  of  comparatively 
recent  date.  We  can  afford  to  marvel 
when  the  great  naturalist  Von  Humboldt 
could  not  refrain  from  expressing  his 
surprise.  ''Albertus  Magnus,"  he  says, 
"was  equally  active  and  influential  in 
promoting  the  study  of  natural  science 
and  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy.  .  .  . 
.  .  .  His  works  contain  some  exceedingly 
acute  remarks  on  the  organic  structure 
and  physiology  of  plants.  One  of  his 
works,  bearing  the  title  of  '  Liber  Cosmo- 
graphicus  de  Natura  Locorum, '  is  a  species 
of  physical  geography.  I  have  found  in 
it  considerations  on  the  dependence  of 
temperature  concurrently  on  latitude  and 
elevation,  and  on  the  effect  of  different 
angles  of  incidence  of  the  sun's  rays  in 

14 


in  the  ' '  Dark  Ages. ' ' 


heating  the  ground,  which  had  excited 
my  surprise."'  * 

As  text-books  were  rare,  a  great  deal  of 
dictation  was  necessary.  The  weariness 
which  it  begot  soon  led  to  the  invention 
of  shorthand  methods  of  reporting  dis- 
course. Some  monasteries  became  famous 
for  their  shorthand  classes,  and  their  pro- 
fessors celebrated  not  only  for  their  own 
but  for  their  scholars'  proficiency.  Of 
the  text-books  in  use,  the  most  renowned 
were  the  "Grammatical  Institutions"  of 
Priscian,  in  eighteen  books,  of  which,  so 
the  story  goes,  Theodosius  the  younger 
was  so  enamored  that  he  copied  them 
with  his  own  hand;  the  "  Distichia  Mo- 
ralia,"  a  popular  class-book  whose  com- 
position was  attributed  to  Cato,  but  is 
more  commonly  believed  to  have  been 
the  work  of  a  monk  in  the  second  cen- 
tury;** the  grammar  of  Donatus,  the 
teacher  of  Saint  Jerome,  which  continued 
a  favorite  throughout  the  middle  ages; 
various  books  of  Boetius,  a  writer  of  the 
fifth  century  and  one  of  the  last  and 
brightest  scholars  of  the  decline.  He 
wrote  original  Latin  productions  for  class 


*  Cosmos,  vol,  ii.,  p.  243  in  fine.  Translation 
by  n.  C.  Oite. 

*♦  On  this  work,  cf.  Ireland's  Ancient  Schools 
and  Scholars,  Healy,  p.  117. 

15 


Christian  Education 


use,  and  it  was  to  his  translations  from 
the  Greek  that  the  mediaeval  students 
owed  much  of  their  acquaintance,  which 
was  none  too  extensive,  with  the  writers 
of  Hellas.  To  these  let  us  add  '  'On  the 
teaching  of  Sacred  Letters"  and  "The 
Seven  Liberal  Arts,"  written  by  Cassio- 
dorus  for  the  school  which  he  founded  at 
Viviers,  and  which  were  also  works  in 
long  and  favored  repute.  The  best 
known  and  no  doubt  the  most  generally 
used  was  the  "Satyricon"  of  Martianus 
Capella,  written  about  the  year  460.  It 
was  an  encyclopaedia  in  nine  books,  cover- 
ing in  its  treatment  the  matter  embraced 
in  the  Trivium  and  Quadrivium.  It  con- 
tained whatever  knowledge  was  then  ex- 
tant upon  the  so-called  "Seven  Liberal 
Arts,"  and  such  was  its  widespread  popu- 
larity that  it  continued  in  favor  as  the 
text-book  by  excellence  for  upwards  of  a 
thousand  years  and  was  translated  into 
various  languages  and  adopted  every- 
where. Possibly  the  one  who  did  most 
in  the  composition  of  text-books,  and 
that  at  a  time  which  Mr.  Hallam  stigma- 
tizes as  the  nadir  of  European  civilization, 
was  Saint  Isidore,  Archbishop  of  Seville, 
and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  celebrated 
seminary  to  which  allusion  has  already 
been  made  in  a  previous  paper.     He  died 

16 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages,** 


in  the  year  630.  Isidore  was  certainly  a 
learned  man,  and  was  looked  upon  as  an 
intellectual  prodigy  by  his  contempora- 
ries. The  work  which  won  him  his  great 
reputation  is  entitled  "Origines;  sen  Ety- 
mologiarum  Libri."  It  is  in  twenty 
books,  and  not  only  embraces  the  Tri- 
vium  and  the  Quadrivium^  but  also  the 
subjects  God,  man,  the  world,  Scripture, 
medicine,  law,  language,  geography,  ag- 
riculture, zoology,  and  a  number  of  other 
miscellaneous  topics.  Of  these  produc- 
tions, and  similar  ones  of  lesser  note, 
Hallam  remarks  that  their  very  meagre- 
ness  is  proof  sufficient  of  an  almost  total 
literary  decay.  True.  No  one  attempts 
to  deny  their  superficiality  of  treatment. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  are  not  to  be 
tried  by  the  canons  of  nineteenth  century 
criticism,  which  it  would  be  well  for  Hal- 
lam, Milman,  Robertson,  Brucker,  and 
our  own  Mr.  Bmerton  always  to  bear  in 
mind. 

The  cloistral  and  cathedral  schools,  in 
default  of  many  of  our  modern  improve- 
ments, were  conducted  under  difficulties 
not  hard  to  conceive.  The  monastic 
schools  for  externs  was  in  a  building 
apart  from  the  cloister.  There  was  a 
head  master  and  an  assistant.  In  the 
larger  monastic  institutions  the  corps  of 

17 


Christian  Education 


professors,  as  we  would  now  phrase  it,  was 
quite  numerous.  The  system  was  pater- 
nal, though  the  rod  figured  conspicuously 
in  the  moral  training  of  the  mediaeval 
"small  boy,"  but  hardly  to  the  absurd 
extent  asserted  by  Laurie,  who  says  that 
*  *  in  many  monasteries  all  the  boys  were 
periodically  flogged  as  a  kind  of  general 
atonement  for  sins  past  and  possible;" 
this,  too,  on  the  ridiculous  assumption 
that  the  devil  was  in  the  heart  of  every 
boy,  and  could  only  be  gotten  out  by 
trouncing.  The  students,  especially  the 
younger  ones,  were  carefully  looked  after 
by  the  monks  appointed  to  act  as  prefects, 
and  whose  duty  it  was  to  remain  with 
their  charges  night  and  day — exercising 
the  closest  supervision  over  their  conduct. 
Education  was  absolutely  free,  and  in 
many  instances,  as  at  Yarrow  in  the  time 
of  Venerable  Bede,  indigent  pupils  were 
even  provided  with  food  and  clothing  at 
the  expense  of  the  cloister.  The  boys 
continued  at  school  until  fourteen  years 
of  age,  when  they  departed  to  enter  their 
respective  fields  of  labor.  If  they  desired 
to  be  monks,  they  remained  in  the  monas- 
tery undergoing  the  discipline  suited  to 
that  kind  of  life.  Facilities  for  the  pur- 
suit of  higher  studies  were  not  to  be  had 
until  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  a.  d.  768, 

18 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages.'' 

who,  in  imitation  of  the  imperial  system 
of  old  Rome,  whose  educational  as  well  as 
governmental  polity  he  sought  in  many 
respects  to  reproduce,  founded  advanced 
schools  in  various  parts  of  his  extensive 
domain.  The  most  celebrated  were  at 
Paris,  Tours,  Pavia,  Rheims,  Lyons,  Fulda 
and  Bologna.  Some  see  in  them  the  germs 
of  the  mediaeval  universities,  whose  ori- 
gin scholars  find  it  difficult  to  trace  with 
accuracy.  Such  were  the  teachers, 
such  was  the  learning  afforded  by  the 
early  mediaeval  monastic  schools.  It  may 
be  taken  as  a  fair  estimate  of  the  educa- 
tional advantages  offered  by  the  mon- 
asteries in  general.  We  say  *  'in  general'  * 
for  some  were,  of  course,  more  advanced 
than  others.  But  our  concern  is  not  with 
the  exception,  but  with  the  rule.  That 
education  under  these  circumstances,  and 
in  spite  of  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  its 
development,  did  not  remain  at  a  stand- 
still, is  sufficiently  manifest  by  the  pro- 
gress made  in  certain  monasteries  when 
the  circumstances  of  the  times,  especially 
the  royal  patronage  and  the  discontinu- 
ance of  wars,  were  conducive  to  its  rapid 
and  healthy  growth.  Indeed  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  observe,  though  the  trans- 
ition be  at  times  ever  so  gradual  and  well 
nigh    invisible,    as    we  thread  our    way 

19 


Christian  Education, 


through  the  twilight  from  the  sixth  to  the 
twelfth  century,  a  progressive  movement 
towards  the  broader  educational  condi- 
tion of  things  in  which  it  finally  culmin- 
ated. Where  the  monks  of  the  fifth 
and  sixth  centuries  were  occupied 
with  saving  the  remnants  of  ancient 
literature,  purging  and  adapting  authors 
for  class  purposes,  and  imparting  the 
merest  elements  to  the  as  yet  untutored 
barbarian,  their  successors  in  the  eighth 
and  ninth  aud  eleventh  had  strung  their 
instruments  for  songs  in  a  higher  key. 
The  monk  Gerbert,  raised  subsequently 
to  the  Papal  chair  under  the  title  of  Syl- 
vester II.,  was  holding  forth  upon  the 
Categories  and  Topics  of  Aristotle.  The 
professors  in  certain  German  monasteries 
were  delivering  lectures  in  Greek,  Hebrew 
and  Arabic.  At  Dijon  the  monks  of  St. 
Benignus  were  discoursing  on  medicine, 
while  the  enterprising  inmates  of  Saint 
Gall  were  teaching  painting,  engraving, 
and,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  sculpture.* 
This  development  would  have  been  more 
systematic  and  pronounced  from  the  start 
if  the  zeal  of  the  monks,  unhampered 
by  endless  political  and  social  unrest, 
had  been  the  only  factor  in  the  caJcula- 

4  See  Appendix,  p.  57,  note  4. 


in  the  *  *  Dark  Ages, ' ' 


tion.  It  was  not,  however,  and  these 
pious  men  who  found  so  much  time  for 
the  conduct  of  schools  still  felt  that  the 
bulk  of  their  energies  had  to  be  devoted 
to  the  spiritual  rather  than  the  intellec- 
tual benefit  of  their  neighbors.  How  well 
they  succeeded  in  their  missionary  un- 
dertakings is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
within  the  compass  of  six  centuries  they 
had  reclaimed  from  Arianism  the  Goths 
and  Vandals,  and  *  'instructed  in  the  Gos- 
pel the  idolatrous  nations  of  Denmark, 
Sweden,  Norway,  Bulgaria,  Hungary, 
Saxony,  Poland  and  Russia." 

Such  was  the  monk  at  home:  such  his 
work.  But  if  we  would  gauge  him  aright 
and  allot  him  his  due  meed  of  praise  we 
must  follow  him  abroad  and  study  his 
endeavors  for  the  widespread  diffusion  of 
knowledge.  The  fifth  century,  as  we  have 
said,  closed  in  darkness.  The  schools  of 
the  Empire  and  the  earliest  attempts  at 
Christian  education  were  at  first  brought 
to  naught  by  the  deluge  of  barbarism 
which  swept  over  the  continent  of  Europe, 
though  destined,  after  years  of  almost  ut- 
ter obliteration,  to  revive  and  become  the 
foundation  of  modern  civilization,  reform 
and  culture.  In  the  meanwhile,  that  is 
in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  by  a 
providential  arrangement,  peace  reigned 


Christian  Education, 


in  what  are  now  the  British  Isles.  Thither 
learning  fled.  In  England  and  Ireland, 
during  the  three  centuries  following  the 
fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  monasteries 
were  multiplied,  and  education  diligently- 
fostered,  and  scholars  nurtured  who  went 
forth  when  the  storm  abated  and  set  about 
the  process  of  reconstruction  all  through 
Europe.  During  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries,  says  Dr.  Dollinger,  the  schools 
in  the  Irish  cloisters  were  **  the  most  cel- 
ebrated in  all  the  west. "  Famous  among 
them  were  those  of  Armagh,  which  at  one 
time  could  boast  of  seven  thousand  pu- 
pils; Ivismore;  Cashel;  Kildare;  Aran  "of 
the  saints;"  Clonard,  where  the  great 
Columba  studied  ;  Clonmacnoise  ;  Ben- 
chor,  and  Clonfert,  founded  by  Saint  Bren- 
dan.^ The  arrival  of  Saint  Augustine  in 
England  with  a  colony  of  monks  from 
Monte  Cassino,  a.d.  597,  inaugurated  for 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  a  most 
prosperous  educational  era  in  that  island. 
Canterbury,  Lindisfarne,  Malmsbury, 
Croyland,  Yarrow,  Wearmouth,  York, 
Oxford  and  various  other  centres,  are  at 
once  suggestive  to  the  student  of  history 
of  the  active  spirit  which  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  country.  To  the  schools  of 
these  isles,  and  that  for  upwards  of  three 
5  See  Appendix,  p.  57,  note  5. 


in  the  ''Dark  Ag-es.'* 


hundred  years,  students,  regardless  of  the 
difficulties  of  the  journey,  flocked  in 
thousands  and  from  all  quarters,  even  from 
Greece  and  Egypt.  Of  the  great  men 
who  studied  within  their  enclosure,  and 
who  afterwards  became  the  pioneers  of 
the  revived  learning  and  civilization 
throughout  the  western  world,  it  will  suf- 
fice to  mention  Saint  Columba,  the  Apos- 
tle of  Caledonia;  Saint  Columbanus,  who 
evangelized  France,  Burgundy,  Switzer- 
land and  Lombardy;  Saint  Columbkille; 
Saint  Boniface,  the  Apostle  of  Germany; 
Saint  Gall,  the  Apostle  of  Switzerland; 
Saint  Fridolin;  Saint  Sigisbert;  Saint 
Killian;  Saint  Virgilius;  Saint  Cataldus; 
Saint  Kentigern;  Saint  Willibrod;  Saint 
Donatus;  Saint  Frigdian;  Venerable  Bede; 
Aldhelm;  Alcuin,  and  an  army  of  others. 
Under  their  influence  the  barbarian, 
grown  weary  of  strife  and  realizing  the 
desolation  which  he  had  wrought,  was 
gradually  moulded  to  better  things.  He 
became  as  eager  to  learn  as  they  were  to 
teach,  and  their  work  went  on  prosper- 
ously if  slowly.  "As  the  Irish  mission- 
aries," to  quote  Newman  again,  "trav- 
elled down  through  England,  France  and 
Switzerland  to  lower  Italy  and  attempted 
Germany  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  found- 
ing churches,  schools  and  monasteries  as 

23 


Christian  Education 


they  went  along,  so,  amid  the  deep  pagan 
woods  of  Germany  and  round  about,  the 
English  Benedictine  plied  his  axe  and 
drove  his  plough,  planted  his  rude  dwell- 
ing and  raised  his  rustic  altar  upon  the 
ruins  of  idolatry,  and  then,  settling 
down  as  a  colonist  upon  the  soil,  began 
to  sing  his  chants  and  to  copy  his  old 
volumes,  and  thus  to  lay  the  slow  but 
sure  foundation  of  the  new  civilization."* 
The  first  of  the  three  most  notable 
movements  in  the  direction  of  educational 
progress  occurred  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Great,  which  extended  from 
A.D.  768  to  A.D.  814.  This  illustrious 
man — '  *  the  King  of  Europe  "  and  *'  the 
Orthodox  Emperor,"  as  he  was  fondly 
styled  on  account  of  the  vast  extent  of 
territory  over  which  he  ruled  and  his 
noble  defense  of  religion,  though  himself 
a  stranger  to  literary  cultivation  could 
nevertheless  appreciate  the  accomplish- 
ment in  others.  A  journey  through  Italy 
about  the  year  780  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  certain  scholars  of  whose  learn- 
ing he  was  in  admiration.  The  event  deter- 
rjined  him  to  do  ail  in  his  power  to  raise 
the  intellectual  standard  of  his  subjects 
by  putting  within  their  reach  every  facil- 

»  hoc,  dl. 

24 


(Tir 


in  the  ^^Dark  Ages.'' 


ity  for  educational  improvement.  It  was 
the  dream  of  Charlemagne's  lifetime  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  an  empire  destined 
to  rival  in  splendor  the  glories  of  ancient 
Rome,  and  he  felt  that  this  was  impossi- 
ble without  the  revival  of  letters  on  a 
scale  approaching,  if  not  surpassing,  the 
traditional  renown  of  the  Augustan  Age. 
He  had  heard  of  the  system  of  higher  and 
secondary  education  as  it  had  prevailed 
in  the  universities  of  old  at  Rome, 
Athens,  Constantinople,  Alexandria  and 
elsewhere.  He  had  seen  it  in  active 
though  imperfect  operation  in  the  Bene- 
dictine monasteries,  in  which  a  partial 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  higher 
and  lower  studies  was  drawn.  Accord- 
ingly, his  first  care  was  to  send  earnest 
instructions  to  the  bishops  and  abbots 
and  priests,  urging  them  to  enter  heartily 
into  his  scheme  of  educational  reform  by 
exerting  themselves  vigorously  for  the 
benefit  of  their  cathedral  and  monastic  as 
also  of  their  parochial  schools.  All  this 
in  order  to  qualify  youth  to  enter  into  the 
Palatine  or  Palace  School  established  at 
the  Court,  or  similar  institutions  soon  to 
be  modeled  upon  it  in  other  parts  of  the 
kingdom.  The  text  of  this  capitular  or 
encyclical  letter,  *  'the  first  general  char- 
ter of  education  for  the  middle  ages, ' '  is 

25 


Christian  Education 


quoted  in  full  by  Mr.  Mullinger  in  his 
popular  and  well-known  work  upon  the 
schools  of  Charlemagne  as  afifording  a 
marked  evidence  of  the  educational  status 
of  the  times.  "We  exhort  you,  there- 
fore," says  the  emperor,  *'not  only  not 
to  neglect  the  study  of  letters,  but  to  ap- 
ply yourself  thereto  with  perseverance 
and  with  that  humility  which  is  well 
pleasing  to  God,  .  .  .  Let  there  there- 
fore be  chosen  for  this  work  men  who  are 
both  able  and  willing  to  learn  and  also 
desirous  of  instructing  others;  and  let 
them  apply  themselves  to  the  work  with 
a  zeal  equalling  the  earnestness  with 
which  we  recommend  it  to  them."^  The 
emperor's  next  care  was  to  secure  the 
best  professors,  and  for  these  he  looked  to 
England  and  Ireland.  The  most  cele- 
brated of  those  whose  services  he  engaged 
was  Alcuin,  an  English  monk  of  the 
monastery  of  York.  He  enjoyed  wide- 
spread fame  as  a  teacher  and  a  scholar, 
and  so  impressed  Charles,  whom  he  met 
at  Parma  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit  al- 
ready alluded  to,  that  he  prevailed  upon 
him  to  resign  his  position  as  head  mas- 
ter of  the  schools  in  his  monastery  and 
take  up  his  residence  in  Frankland,  there 

6  See  Appendix  p.  58  note  6 

26 


in  the  ''  Dark  Ages r 


to  become  the  corner-stone  of  the  new 
order  of  things  about  to  be  inaugurated.'^ 
The  learning  which  Alcuin  brought  with 
him  was  signalized  and  recommended  by 
the  tradition  which  had  come  down  to 
him  through  a  series  of  distinguished 
saints  and  scholars  direct  from  the  See 
of  Peter.^  He  continued  with  very  little 
interruption  for  fourteen  years,  from  a.d. 
782  to  A.D.  796,  co-operating  with  his 
royal  master  for  the  furtherance  of  his 
educational  plans.  He  then  severed  his 
connection  with  the  Palace  school,  re- 
tired from  court,  and  sought  a  quiet 
retreat  in  the  monastery  of  Saint  Martin, 
at  Tours,  the  incursions  of  the  Norsemen, 
which  had  begun  in  the  meantime,  ren- 
dering it  impossible  for  him  to  return  to 
his  much-loved  island  home. 

Among  the  distinguished  successors  to 
Alcuin  in  the  Palace  School  should  be 
mentioned  Rabanus  Maurus,  also  Dungal 
and  Clement,  two  Irish  scholars  of  rare 
ability,  whose  proffered  services  in  the 
cause  of  education  Charlemagne  readily 
accepted  and  rewarded.  At  a  later  date, 
during  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Bald,  and 
after    the   school    had  been   transferred 

7  See  Appendix  p.  58,  note  7. 

8  See  Appendix  p.  58,  note  8. 
27 


Christian  Education 

from  Aix-la-Chapelle  to  Paris,  we  find  at 
the  head  of  it  the  famous  Scotus  Krigena, 
with  whom  theologians  are  sufiiciently 
familiar.  Scotus  was  an  eminent  Orien- 
tal linguist,  had  studied  in  Ireland  and 
travelled  much  in  the  Bast,  where  no 
doubt  the  metaphysical  speculations  for 
which  he  had  become  so  celebrated  had 
become  tinged  with  the  Platonism  of  the 
Alexandrian  Schools.  His  heretical 
views  touching  the  Eucharist  and  free 
will  soon  led  to  no  end  of  conflict  and 
controversy,  until  his  public  condemna- 
tion  by  the  Church  became  an  impera- 
tive necessity.  The  Palace  School  and 
such  as  were  more  or  less  fashioned  upon 
it  were  intended  to  furnish  every  facility 
for  the  prosecution  of  higher  studies,  and 
therefore  designed  to  complete  the  work 
begun  in  the  primary  or  parochial 
schools,  and  carried  on  through  the 
minor  cathedral  and  monastery  schools. 
A  youth,  graduating  from  one  of  these 
latter,  passed  to  one  or  other  of  the  for- 
mer or  major  schools  which,  by  royal 
decree  issued  a.d.  789,  had  been  erected  in 
connection  with  certain  of  the  larger  mon- 
asteries, as,  for  instance,  with  those  of 
Saint  Gall,  Fulda,  Fleury,  Fontanelles, 
and  at  least  a  dozen  more  referred  to  by 
Mabillon.      In  the  primary    or    village 

28 


in  the  *  *  Dark  Ages, ' ' 


parochial  school  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic and  singing  were  all  that  was 
taught.  In  the  minor  schools  the  work 
previously  begun  was  continued  and  aug- 
mented by  the  addition  of  the  Triviufn. 
In  the  major  schools  the  Quadriviuin 
was  added,  and  such  special  languages 
and  sciences  as  individual  institutions 
were  able  to  supply,  which,  in  some 
cases  were  considerable.  Over  the  pri- 
mary or  parochial  school  the  parish  priest 
presided.  Over  the  monastery  school, 
minor  and  major,  whether  conducted  for 
interns  or  externs,  the  abbot.  Over  the 
cathedral  school,  the  bishop,  directly,  or 
indirectly  by  means  of  the  ScholasticuSy 
or  head  master  appointed  by  him.  In- 
struction was  gratuitous.  The  schools 
were  strictly  public;  equally  open  to  rich 
and  poor.  The  whole  system  was  capped 
by  the  Palace  School.  From  it  all  others 
naturally  took  their  cue,  as  it  was  gener- 
ally, though  not  always,  controlled  by 
the  best  teachers,  and  consequently  was 
easily  able  to  set  the  fashion  and  give  the 
tone  to  the  rest  of  the  country  in  matters 
literary  and  scientific.  It  is  worthy  of 
observation  that  the  Palace  School  was 
for  girls  as  well  as  boys  ;  women  as  well 
as  men.  It  was  to  one  of  his  female  pu- 
pils that  Alcuin  dedicated  his  commenta- 
29 


Christian  Education 


ries  upon  the  Gospel  of  Saint  John  and 
his  treatise  on  the  nature  of  the  human 
soul.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
throughout  the  moral  training  of  the  pu- 
pils was  most  sedulously  looked  to.  Cate- 
chism, Scripture,  ecclesiastical  chant  and 
the  Church's  calendar  and  ceremonies 
were  carefully  taught.  It  certainly  must 
have  been  a  great  stimulus  to  the  dili- 
gence of  scholars  everywhere  to  note  the 
zest  with  which  the  Emperor  "went  to 
school,"  taking  his  place  upon  the  forms 
in  the  class-room  and  asking  and  answer- 
ing questions  like  the  youngest  pupil, 
whilst  the  eloquence  of  Alcuin  opened  up 
to  his  untutored  mind  the  profundities 
of  grammar  and  arithmetic  or  of  astron- 
omy, of  which  he  seems  to  have  been 
particularly  fond.  We  may  thus  conceive 
of  the  Palace  School  as  a  sort  of  univer- 
sity centre,  though  in  no  sense  a  univer- 
sity; nor,  in  the  opinion  of  Cardinal  New- 
man, even  the  nucleus  of  the  subsequent 
mediaeval  universities,  as  Du  Boulay,  in 
his  eagerness  to  trace  the  origin  of  that 
of  Paris  to  Charlemagne,  so  stoutly  con- 
tends. Some  idea  of  the  broad  gauge 
upon  which  the  Emperor  proposed  to 
operate  his  plan  of  educational  reform 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  even 
the  Palace  School  was  not  intended  ex- 


30 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages.'' 


clusively  for  members  of  the  court,  but 
admitted  also  those  of  humble  origin 
whose  exceptional  talent  gave  promise  of 
future  ability. 

When  in  this  connection  we  speak  of 
*  'higher  studies, ' '  we  use  the  term  rela- 
tively, of  course.  There  was,  for  instance, 
in  astronomy  as  taught  by  Alcuin  much 
that  was  never  dreamt  of  in  Herschel's 
philosophy  or  seen  through  the  Lick  tel- 
escope. But  all  the  same,  what  there  . 
was  of  endeavor  merits  praise  instead  of 
ridicule,  as  it  pointed  distinctly  to  a  for- 
ward and  not  to  a  retrogressive  move- 
ment. It  may  be  said  that  the  great  Em- 
peror brought  the  full  force  n6t  only  of 
his  example  but  also  of  his  authority  to 
bear  upon  the  promotion  of  education 
throughout  his  dominions.  As  he  had 
commanded,  and  that  in  various  capitu- 
lars, all  bishops,  abbots  and  priests  to 
second  his  ejQforts  to  provide  the  necessary 
learning  for  his  subjects,  so  in  like  man. 
ner  he  commanded  the  subjects  in  their 
turn  to  profit  to  the  full  by  the  opportuni. 
ties  afforded.  Every  inducement  in  the 
shape  of  rewards  and  preferments  was 
offered,  and  when  these  failed  compul- 
sion was  had  recourse  to.  In  a  capitular 
issued  A.  D.  812  he  ordained  that  "every 
one  should  send  his  son  to  study  letters, 


31 


Christian  Education 


and  that  the  child  should  remain  at  school 
and  study  with  all  diligence  until  he 
should  be  well  instructed  in  learning." 
The  result  of  so  much  activity  on  the  part 
of  Charlemagne  and  such  prompt  co-oper- 
ation on  the  part  of  the  monks  was  a 
general  revival  of  learning  within  his 
dominions.  Their  influence  was  still 
more  widespread.  Wherever  the  fame  of 
his  literary  achievements  extended ; 
wherever  the  pupils  of  the  Prankish 
schools  travelled,  there  the  spirit  of  in- 
quiry was  awakened  and  an  eager  desire 
to  imitate,  if  not  to  emulate  them,  was 
enkindled.  That  his  scheme  of  reform, 
left  to  itself,  would  have  produced  per- 
manent and  happy  results  there  is  no 
questioning.  His  immediate  successors^ 
Louis  le  Debonnaire  and  Charles  the 
Bald,  did  their  utmost  to  bring  it  to  ma- 
turity. But  political  dissensions,  whose 
origin  and  course  it  were  beyond  our  pres- 
ent purpose  to  trace,  begot  civil  discord, 
►  and  in  the  social  upheavals  of  protracted 
war  the  educational  work  of  Charlemagne 
was  undone.  The  growth  of  feudalism  • 
and  the  dismemberment  of  the  Carlovin- 
gian  Empire,  which  was  in  progress  for  a 
century  and  a  half— that  is  to  say  from 
the  middle  of  the  ninth  to  the  end  of  the 
tenth    century— played  havoc   with  the 

32 


in  the  ^ '  Dark  Ages,  * ' 


schools.  Yet  it  were  false  to  say  that  the 
interest  and  industry  put  out  by  so  many 
minds  and  through  so  long  a  time  upon 
the  advancement  of  learning  were  produc- 
tive of  no  results.  There  is  a  conserva- 
tion of  moral  as  of  physical  energy  in  the 
world,  and  the  prolific  idea,  once  set  in 
motion,  never  dies  until  it  has  brought 
forth  to  fullness,  somewhere  and  some- 
how, the  fruitage  of  which  its  pent-up 
vitality  gave  hopeful  assurance.  The  ef- 
forts of  Charlemagne,  if  not  altogether 
successful,  were  certainly  not  entirely 
abortive.  The  cathedral  and  conventual 
schools  had  been  actively  revived.^  A 
new  impulse  had  been  given  to  the  study 
of  the  German  language.*  Pupils  gradu- 
ated from  his  schools  had  scattered  them- 
selves over  Europe,  disseminating  else- 
where the  seed  which  could  no  longer 
grow  in  soil  now  become  uncongenial. 
While  the  entire  life  of  the  great  man,  in 
so  far  as  he  is  connected  with  the  history 
of  education,  has  built  up  a  tradition 
whose  splendor  still  hangs,  like  a  sunset 
glory  upon  the  distant  and  darkening 
horizon  of  those  far-off  times,  and  still 
works  like  a  charm  upon  the  minds  of 

9  See  Appendix  p.  58,  note  9. 

*(y.  Saint  Boniface  and  the  Conversion  of  Oer- 
many,  Hope,  c.  25. 

33 


Christian  Education 


scholars.  None  the  less,  it  is  true  that  at 
this  juncture,  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century,  the  continent  was  lapsing  into 
darkness.  Education  and  learning  once 
again  fled  to  Britain,  where  peace  was  be- 
ginning to  reign,  and  there  sought  to 
build  themselves  a  habitation  among  the 
ruined  and  deserted  cloisters  where  the 
monk  of  other  days  had  lived  and  prayed 
and  studied  and  taught. 

When  Alfred  the  Great,  a,  d.  872,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  of  Britain  the  aspect 
of  affairs  waj  dismal  in  the  extreme.  The 
ravages  of  the  Danes  had  exiled  studies 
from  the  kingdom  and  left  but  little  trace 
of  the  educational  labors  of  the  early 
monks  and  missionaries.  The  churches 
and  monasteries,  the  only  homes  of  learn- 
ing had  been  pillaged.  The  inmates, 
its  only  guardians,  had  been  murdered. 
Lindisfarne,  Coldingham,  Tynemouth, 
Bardney,  Croyland,  Medeshamstede  and 
Ely  amongst  the  number,  were  in  ashes. 
•*At  this  period,"  says  Dr.  Lingard, 
speaking  of  the  close  of  the  Danish  in- 
vasion, "the  English  church  offered  to 
the  friends  of  religion  a  melancholy  and 
alarming  spectacle.  The  laity  had  re- 
sumed the  ferocity  of  their  heathen  fore- 
fathers ;  the  clergy  were  dissolute  and 
illiterate  ;  and  the  monastic  order  was  in 

34 


in  the  '  *  Dark  Ages, ' ' 


a  manner  annihilated.*  I^ike  Charle- 
magne, Alfred  felt  that  his  mission  was  to 
be  one  of  reconstruction.  Accordingly 
he  set  to  work  to  rebuild  monasteries,  to 
gather  together  teachers,  open  schools, 
and  urge  his  subjects,  by  example  no  less 
than  by  precept,  to  do  all  in  their  power 
for  th«  furtherance  of  knowledge.  Re- 
turning from  Rome,  a  visit  to  the  court 
of  Charles  the  Bald  had  thrown  him  in 
contact  with  scholarly  men  and  intro- 
duced him  to  the  workings  of  the  Palace 
School,  which  he  made  it  his  purpose  to 
reproduce  in  his  own  dominions  as  soon 
as  a  lull  in  the  storm  of  battle  would 
permit. 

During  the  fifteen  years  of  peace  which 
the  country  enjoyed  immediately  after 
the  decisive  encounter  of  Ethandune  (a.d, 
873),  Alfred  set  vigorously  to  work.  He 
gave  himself  to  diligent  study,  securing 
as  teacher  and  head  of  the  Palace  School, 
Asser,  a  monk  of  St.  David's,  or  Menevia, 
in  Wales,  who  subsequently  became  his 
biographer.  Asser  enjoyed  a  widespread 
reputation  for  learning  and  ability.  It 
was  only,  however,  after  considerable  de- 
lay and  difficulty  that  the  King  prevailed 

*  Antiquiiies  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  c.  11 
The  Life  of  King  Alfred  the  Great,  Knight ;  Annale» 
Rerum  Oeatarum  Aelfredi  Magni,  Asser. 


35 


Christian  Education 


upon  him  to  spend  six  out  of  twelve 
months  each  year  in  England,  superin- 
tending the  Palatine  and  such  other 
schools  as  were  placed  under  his  direc- 
tion. For  it  is  surmised,  and  with  good 
reason,  that  his  pedagogical  work  was  not 
confined  to  the  inmates  of  the  palace,  but 
that,  like  Alcuin,  he  travelled  from  place 
to  place  with  his  royal  master,  opening 
schools  where  at  all  feasible  at  the  same 
time  that  he  communicated  to  those  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact,  some  of  the 
zeal  and  interest  in  educational  progress 
which  filled  his  own  ardent  and  devoted 
soul.  In  reward  for  his  services  he  was 
created  abbot  of  several  monasteries,  and 
finally  raised  to  the  bishopric  of  Sher- 
burne, where  he  died  in  the  year  910.  Un- 
der such  competent  guidance  Alfred  made 
great  progress  in  his  studies,  and  was 
enabled  gradually  to  perfect  the  work  he 
had  begun  years  before.  Though  we  are 
told  that  at  the  age  of  twelve  he  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  by  dint  of  perse- 
vering endeavor  he  soon  became  remark- 
able for  his  attainments  in  certain  de- 
partments of  learning,  and  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  men  of  his  times. 

Each  day  he  devoted  eight  hours  out 
of  the  twenty-four  to  prayer,  study  and 
composition.     He  applied  himself  espec- 

36 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages.'' 

ially  to  philosophy,  geometry,  music  and 
architecture.  At  the  age  of  thirty-nine  he 
took  up  Latin,  which  he  mastered  suffic- 
iently to  enable  him  to  compose  in  it  sev- 
eral works  of  no  mean  desert,  as  well  as 
to  translate  others  into  the  vernacular — 
amongst  them  being  "Liber  Pastoralis 
Curae  "  by  Gregory  the  Great ;  ''De  Con- 
solatione  Philosophiae  "  by  Boetius,  and 
"  Historia  Ecclesiastica  "  by  Venerable 
Bede,  together  with  selections  from  the 
"Soliloquies  of  Saint  Augustine."  His 
proficiency  in  the  Saxon  tongue,  in  which 
he  wrote  numerous  poems,  was  also  re- 
markable. Add  to  which  the  practical 
turn  of  his  genius,  which  enabled  him  to 
bring  to  bear  upon  the  material  and  intel- 
lectual advancement  of  his  kingdom 
whatever  knowledge  he  acquired.  "In  a 
word,"  says  Edmund  Burke,  summing  up 
his  excellent  qualities,  * '  he  compre- 
hended in  the  greatness  of  his  mind  the 
whole  of  government  and  its  parts  at 
once,  and,  what  is  most  difficult  to  human 
frailty,  was  at  the  same  time  sublime  and 
minute."*  A  character  of  such  diversi- 
fied worth  was  well  suited  to  become  the 
chief  instrument  of  educational  reform  at 
an  epoch  and  in  conditions  sufficiently 


*  Abridgment  of  English  Eistory,  Book  II. 
37 


Christian  Education 


dark  and  desperate.  lyike  the  humblest 
child  he  sat  at  the  feet  of  Asser  in  the 
Palace  School,  and  gave  peremptory  or- 
ders that  all  the  officials  in  his  kingdom 
should  set  the  same  example  of  diligence 
and  love  of  self-improvement  by  applying 
themselves  immediately  and  earnestly  to 
the  cultivation  of  learning.  If  loath  to 
do  so,  they  were  to  be  dismissed  from 
their  offices  forthwith.  To  facilitate  the 
execution  of  his  command,  he  enlisted 
the  services  of  whatever  learned  men  there 
were  in  Britain.  These  were  none  too 
numerous.  He  himself  in  a  letter  to 
Wulsige  had  deplored  their  lamentable 
scarcity.  ^^  Nothing  daunted,  however,  by 
the  obstacles  in  his  way,  he  sent  abroad 
to  solicit  aid  from  other  nations — not 
merely  petitioning  for  scholars  to  conduct 
his  schools,  but  even  for  monks  to  people 
his  cloisters,  the  rude  Saxon  not  having 
developed  as  yet  any  particular  relish  for 
that  species  of  life.  Not  only  Wales,  as 
we  have  seen,  but  Flanders,  Germany  and 
France  were  put  under  contribution  to 
supply  the  deficiency.  Perhaps  the  two 
most  prominent  whom  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  were  John,  surnamed  "the  Old 
Saxon,"  who  is  thought  to  have  received 

10  See  Appendix  p.  59,  note  10. 

38 


in  the  *  ^Dark  Ages, 


his  education  at  the  monastery  of  Corby 
in  Westphalia  and  Grimbald.  Both  were 
monks  and  priests.  The  former  he  put  in 
charge  of  the  monastic  establishment  at  " 
Ethelingey.  He  is  sometimes  confounded 
by  historians  with  John  Scotus  Erigena, 
already  referred  to,  and  who  was  not  only 
not  abbot  of  Ethelingey,  but  most  prob- 
ably, as  Dr.  Lingard  maintains,  was 
never  in  England  at  all.^  Grimbald,  if 
certain  accounts  be  credited,  was  given 
the  direction  of  the  educational  institu- 
tion at  Oxford,  whose  origin  would  thus 
be  traceable  to  the  ninth,  if  not  to  an 
earlier  century,  with  the  honor  which  it 
so  much  craves  of  having  Alfred  for  its 
founder.  The  more  likely  opinion,  how- 
ever, based  upon  sounder  historical  crit- 
cism,  seems  to  be  that  all  trace  of  Grim- 
bald is  lost,  and  his  connection  with  Ox- 
ford is  nothing  more  than  a  fiction  woven 
of  the  fancies  of  certain  romantic  writers. ^^ 
But  how  bright  soever  the  halo  with 
which  a  gratefulposterity  crowns  Alfred's 
work  as  an  educational  reformer,  it  was 
comparatively  scanty,  and  in  all  likeli- 
hood would  have  perished  with  him  had 

*  Antiquities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  c.  ii. 
Note  37.  JSistoria  Ecclesiastica,  Nat.  Alexander, 
vol.  xii  ,  c.  9,  Art.  III. 

II  See  Appendix  p.  59,  note  11. 
39 


Christian  Education 


not  Providence  raised  up  in  the  person 
of  Dunstan,  a  saintly  monk  of  Glaston- 
bury, where  the  light  of  learning  still 
flickered,  one  who  could  and  did,  upon  his 
recall  from  exile  by  Edgar,  take  up  the 
work  and  bring  it  to  a  perfection  far 
beyond  Alfred's  capabilities.  His  name, 
coupled  with  those  of  Ethelwald,  Oswald, 
Aelfric  and  Abbo,  will  ever  be  associated 
with  an  educational  development  not  al- 
together barren  of  results  in  the  history 
of  English  civilization.  Advancing  upon 
the  lines  marked  out  by  Alfred,  he  en- 
larged his  scope  and  infused  into  the  un- 
dertaking a  divine  power — the  gift  of 
saints  —  which  until  then  it  had  not 
known.  The  work  of  restoration  was 
pushed  diligently  forward.  Peterbor- 
ough, Ely,  Malmsbury  and  Thorney  rose 
from  their  ruins,  and  no  less  than  forty 
abbeys  were  built  or  restored  under  his 
celebrated  primacy.  Thus  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, from  A.  D.  924  to  A.  D.  992,  saw  the 
beginning  of  an  upward  movement  in 
Britain  which  was  to  continue  with  very 
little  interruption  until  the  multiplied 
misfortunes  of  the  sixteenth  century 
would  pour,  like  a  deluge,  over  the  land. 
The  experiment  made  by  Alfred  to  re- 
vive learning  in  England,  in  imitation  of 
Charlemagne  in  France,   found  zealous 

40 


iyithe  ''Dark  Ages.'' 


emulators  in  Germany  in  the  persons  of 
the  Othos,  who  ruled  that  country  from 
A.D.  936  to  A.D.  1024.  Their  efforts  were 
as  successful  as,  if  not  more  so  than, 
those  in  Britain,  and  form,  together  with 
the  other  two,  the  only  points  of  relief  in 
the  dark  ages  we  are  traversing.  The 
pursuit  of  letters  had  been  steadily  on 
the  decline  for  five  hundred  years,  and, 
Hallam  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
the  general  verdict  of  historians  id 
that  it  reached  its  lowest  ebb  towards  the 
close  of  the  tenth  century,  which  has 
been  not  inappropriately  styled  an  age  of 
iron — ''scsculum  infelix  et  obscurum.y^'^ 
The  reason  for  this  lamentable  and  un- 
paralleled decadence  was  the  destruction 
of  churches  and  monasteries  at  the  hands 
of  barbaric  Normans,  Danes  and  Saracens 
whose  depredations  at  this  period  vividly 
recalled  the  invasions  of  Goth  and  Visi- 
goth in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  as 
they  swept  over  the  face  of  Europe,  leav- 
ing nothing  but  ruin  and  desolation  in 
their  track.  Yet,  dark  and  dismal  as  the 
period  really  was,  if  we  scrutinize  the 
situation  closely  we  will  not  fail  to  see 
that  it  was  not  absolutely  unproductive 

*  ScriptoTum  Ecclesiatticorum  Historia  Litter  aria 
Cave.  p.  402. 

12  See  Appendix  p.  59,  note  12, 


41 


Christian  Education 


of  schools  and  scholars.  Both  were  to  be 
met  with  at  Utrecht,  Einsiedeln,  Treves, 
Hildesheim  and  in  other  cities.  The 
same  spirit  of  interest  in  studies  which 
we  have  seen  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne 
was  visible  in  the  populous  centres  of 
Germany,  and  especially  within  the  royal 
household,  where  a  well-conducted  palace 
school  was  flourishing.  It  was  fashioned 
upon  the  same  lines  as  those  presided 
over  by  Alcuin  and  Asser,  and  aimed  at 
systematizing  whatever  educational  en- 
deavors were  possible  in  an  age  so  unfa- 
miliar with  the  arts  of  peace  and  the  in- 
stitutions of  civilized  life.^''  Saint  Bruno, 
raised  by  popular  acclaim  to  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Cologne,  and  Saint  Adelbert 
to  that  of  Magdeburg,  stood  out  in  bold 
relief  as  particularly  zealous  for  the  edu- 
cational improvement  of  their  country. 
Assisted  by  the  unstinted  patronage  of 
the  Othos  and  the  generous  co-operation 
of  a  people  anxious  to  learn,  the  seed  of 
their  endeavors  fell  upon  responsive  soil 
and  realized  a  creditable  harvest.  In- 
junctions were  issued  to  the  bishops 
ordering  them  to  provide  their  dioceses 
with  suitable  schools.  Scholars  were 
brought,  especially  from   Rome,  to  serve 

13  See  Appendix  p.  60,  note  13. 


in  the  *  *  Dark  Ages.  * 


as  teachers,  and  thither  students  were 
sent  to  acquire  whatever  learning  was  to 
be  obtained  at  the  heart  of  Christendom, 
with  the  result  that  not  a  few,  despite  the 
difficulties  of  the  situation,  won  a  fair 
celebrity  by  their  intellectual  attainments. 
It  were  needless  to  recite  a  mere  cata- 
logue of  names.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
the  two  most  celebrated  scholars  who 
flourished  during  this  epoch  were  doubt- 
les  Scotus  Erigena  and  the  monk  Ger- 
bert — solitary  lights,  so  to  speak,  in  a 
firmament  grown  almost  pitchy  dark.^* 

But  the  darkest  hour,  so  the  saw  has 
it,  is  the  one  before  dawn.  Whether  it 
be  so  or  not  ordinarily,  in  the  present 
case  it  certainly  was.  The  elements  of  a 
change  had  been  long  at  work.  The 
change  itself  was  now  imminent.  Social, 
political  and  religious  influences  long 
smouldering  were  about  to  declare  them- 
selves. Their  manifestation  was  to  trans- 
form Europe,  breathe  life  into  the  dry 
bones  of  the  past,  and  give  birth  to  a 
civilization  whose  shibboleth  was  to  be 
educational  reform.  It  is  no  easy  matter, 
even  for  the  philosopher  of  history,  to 
trace  to  its  certain  causes  the  general 
revival  which  unmistakably  sets  in  with 


14  See  Appendix  p.  60,  note  14. 
43 


Christian  Education 


the  eleventh  century.  The  spirit  of  chi- 
valry, the  Crusades,  the  birth  of  com- 
merce, the  formation  of  European  lan- 
guages, the  multiplication  of  religious 
orders,  the  secularization  and  specializa- 
tion of  learning,  and  the  introduction 
into  Europe  from  the  East  of  a  system  of 
philosophy  peculiarly  adapted  to  stimu- 
late mental  exertion,  are  all  advanced  as 
having  more  or  less  influenced  the  turn 
in  the  tide  so  noticeable  at  this  time.  To 
speak  of  the  principal.  Chivalry,  at  once 
the  effect  and  concomitant  of  feudalism, 
with  its  exalted  regard  for  personal  honor 
and  womanly  dignity,  certainly  did  much 
to  steady  the  jarring  elements  of  the  bar- 
baric ages  in  which  it  flourished  and  lift 
men's  thoughts  and  aspirations  from  the 
rude  to  the  refined,  from  the  actual  to 
the  possible,  from  the  real  to  the  ideal. 
The  tales  of  scald  and  bard  ;  the  songs  of 
troubadour  and  minnesinger,  woven 
upon  the  romance  of  love  and  rehearsed 
far  and  near  in  wooded  bower  or  castle 
hall,  were  indeed  a  summons  to  some- 
thing higher.  They  were  an  incentive  to 
a  social  condition  in  which  delicate  fancy 
and  noble  sentiment,  touchstones  of  men- 
tal refinement,  were  allowed  full  scope 
and  activity.  Allied  to  religion,  the  chi- 
valric  spirit  did  more.     It  purified  and 


44 


in  tke  "  Dark  Ages.'' 


elevated  while  it  supernaturalized  the 
lives  and  hopes  of  men,  affording  them 
through  the  darkness  from  which  they 
were  emerging  clearer  glimpses  of  another 
order  of  life,  moral  in  character,  and 
founded  upon  the  immutable  principles 
of  Christian  beauty  and  truth.  It  was 
the  dawn  of  a  new  civilization,  broader 
and  nobler  than  aught  they  had  ever 
known,  and  the  national  as  the  individual 
heart  throbbed  in  responsive  unison  with 
its  invitation  to  higher  and  better  things. 
The  Crusades,  too,  whatever  objections 
may  be  alleged  against  them  on  other 
grounds,  contributed  largely  to  the  revi- 
val of  which  we  are  speaking.  Until  the 
voice  of  Peter  the  Hermit  sounded  the 
call  throughout  Europe  and  rallied  to  a 
common  cause  so  many  nations  differing 
in  character  and  thoroughly  antagonistic 
men's  lives  were  comparatively  insulated. 
There  was  little  travel  and  almost  no  in- 
terchange of  ideas.  What  knowledge 
there  was  stood,  as  it  were,  in  stagnant 
pools  awaiting  some  mystic  touch  to 
quicken  it  into  marv^elous  life.  For  want 
of  motion  and  friction  it  lacked  the  vigor 
which  alone  could  insure  its  rapid  and 
steady  growth.  Ireland,  England  and 
Germany  had  indeed  made  the  world  their 
debtors  by  sending  their  scholars  hither 

45 


Chris tia7t  Education 


and  thither ;  but  the  coming  and  going 
of  a  few  only  helped  to  emphasize  the  de- 
fect in  the  general  situation.  But  with 
the  uprising  of  multitudes  the  result  was 
quite  diflferent.  As  army  met  army,  as 
they  moved  in  thousands  from  place  to 
place,  they  awoke  as  from  a  dream,  and 
what  they  heard  and  saw  came  to  them 
with  the  force  of  a  revelation.  New  ideas, 
new  institutions,  new  scenes,  new  nations, 
new  laws,  new  customs,  new  social  and 
political  systems,  new  libraries,  new 
scholars,  new  educational  facilities,  the 
varied  products  of  the  arts  and  sciences 
and  the  fruits  ot  every  industry  were  all  a 
most  effectual  stimulus.  What  they  had 
seen  and  heard  only  made  them  the  more 
eager  upon  returning  home  to  see  and 
hear  more,  while  it  formed  the  endless 
burden  of  romantic  stories  which  excited 
others  to  set  out  in  quest  of  similar  infor- 
mation. The  secularization  of  learning 
was  also  acting  as  a  potent  factor  at  this 
crisis.  It  is  true,  there  had  always  existed 
what  were  known  as  ''adventure"  or  pri- 
vate schools,  whose  professors  eked  out  a 
livelihood  shifting  from  place  to  place 
and  teaching  wherever  the  experiment 
seemed  to  pay.  But  they  were  conducted 
in  a  manner  in  harmony  with  the  Chris- 
tian ages  in  which  they  flourished.    Now, 

46 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages,*'' 


however,  a  change  was  coming  over  their 
condition.  Their  number  was  increasing. 
The  store  of  learning  which  they  carried 
was  growing  every  day  more  considerable 
while  a  spirit  of  mental  unrest  was  fast 
developing  in  their  midst.  Practically 
divorced  from  religion,  they  wanted  the 
safeguards  which  the  monasteries  had  once 
supplied.  A  dangerous  spirit  of  ambitious 
rivalry  soon  took  possession  of  them 
which,  while  it  had  the  advantage  of 
opening  up  wider  fields  of  research,  was 
in  not  a  few  instances  fraught  with  the 
still  greater  disadvantage  of  not  knowing 
where  to  draw  the  line  upon  its  investiga- 
tions. In  its  wild  chase  after  the  elusive 
phantom  of  knowledge  it  often  overlooked 
its  higher  obligations  and  contributed  not 
a  little  to  foster  the  sceptical  spirit  of  the 
heresies  which  began  to  crop  up  at  this 
time,  and  which,  in  their  deification  of 
reason,  repudiated  the  supreme  and  ina- 
lienable claims  of  divine  faith.  But 
among  the  various  forces  at  work 
we  must  not  omit  to  mention  the 
introduction  into  the  West  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  East  with  its  dis- 
position to  inquiry  and  its  endless  meta- 
physical refinings.  Burope  was  ripe  for 
it.  Heretofore  education  had  moved  in  a 
beaten  track.      It  had  been  traditional 


47 


Christian  Education 


rather  than  discursive.  It  had  contented 
itself  with  guarding  and  quoting  the  wis- 
dom of  antiquity  without  attempting  to 
open  up  new  vistas  or  cut  new  paths 
through  the  unexplored  realms  of  the 
mind.  Original  research  was  almost  un- 
known. Augustine  and  Gregory  Thau- 
maturgus  might  be  cited,  but  to  venture 
a  new  treatise  upon  the  nature  and  pro- 
vince of  grace  were  a  boldness  akin  to 
impiety.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  could  not 
endure.  Too  many  problems  were  press- 
ing for  solution  and  all  that  was  needed 
to  give  it  was  a  scientific  method  of  in- 
vestigation which,  while  it  would  throw 
the  searchlight  of  the  subtlest  mental 
acumen  into  the  darkest  corners  of  the 
most  abstruse  subjects,  could  not  fail  to 
harmonize,  in  the  rounded  fullness  of  a 
universal  accord,  the  natural  with  the 
supernatural,  the  human  with  the  divine, 
the  principles  of  revelation  with  the  laws 
of  perpetual  progress.  The  birth  of  scho- 
lasticism, for  such  was  the  name  which  it 
assumed  in  Christian  hands,  marks  a 
prominent  point  of  departure  in  the  in- 
tellectual history  of  Europe.  The  Aristo- 
telian or  Peripatetic  philosophy  had  been 
imported  from  Greece  and  popularized  by 
Arab  commentators.  Saracenic  invasion 
introduced   it  into    Europe   by  way    of 

48 


frj^r^:i''.r 


in  the  ''Dark  Ages.^' 


Spain,  and  it  was  not  long  ere  it  was 
caught  up  and  assimilated  into  the  life  of 
the  leading  educational  institutions  of 
the  West.  Cleared  of  its  Pagan  dross,  it 
was  easily  moulded  into  an  effective  in- 
strument in  the  hands  of  saints  and  scho- 
lars, and  made  to  serve  the  higher  and 
holier  purpose  of  an  aid  to  the  fuller  illus- 
tration, by  rational  methods,  of  the  truths 
of  the  gospel.  It  took  speedy  possession 
of  the  existing  schools;  infused  new  vi- 
tality into  the  studies  of  the  Trivium 
and  Quadrivium,  imparting  to  them  a 
life  and  a  relish  they  had  never  known 
before.  The  quiet  atmosphere  of  the 
class-room  became  alive  with  the  fire  of 
disputation.  The  fervor  spread  from  in- 
stitution to  institution.  Students  thronged 
from  everywhere  to  the  various  schools, 
until  their  number  became  so  great  as  ta 
necessitate  an  increase  of  lecturers  and  an 
organization  sufficiently  compact  and 
effective  to  hold  this  eager  and  turbulent 
body  in  due  control.  The  enthusiasm 
which  had  formerly  marked  the  lectures 
of  Gerbert  and  Scotus  was  now  aroused 
by  numerous  professors  who  could  drink 
of  the  same  fountain  of  wisdom  without 
crossing  the  threshold  of  their  respective 
monasteries.  Which  of  all  these  forces 
was  the  most  operative  it  were  impossible 

49 


Christia7i  Education 


to  say.  While  Paulsen  emphasizes  the 
Crusades  and  Professor  Laurie  the  secu- 
larization of  education,  Cardinal  Newman 
insists  upon  the  Greek  philosophy  as  the 
most  efifective  and  significant  force  then 
at  work. 

The  age  of  the  universities  had  not  yet 
come.  Still  who  can  fail  to  see  in  the 
features  which  distinguish  this  transi- 
tional epoch  the  dawnings  of  that  activity 
which  in  the  twelfth  century  would  be 
thrown  into  definite  shape  and  in  the  fif- 
teenth would  strike  the  zenith  of  its  de- 
velopment for  the  weal  of  some  and  the 
woe  of  others?  Professors  and  depart- 
ments in  the  various  schools  were  multi- 
plied. Studies  were  organized.  Superior 
schools  were  started  in  great  numbers  as 
supplementary  aids  in  the  shadow  of 
great  educational  centres.  A  system  of 
interdependence,  co-ordinate  and  subor* 
dinate,  was  forming  amongst  the  various 
institutions.  Learning,  as  well  as  the 
methods  adopted  for  its  inculcation, 
was  assuming  a  universal  character  which 
was  gradually  lifting  education  from  the 
contracted  and  hampering  environments 
of  the  past  to  the  world-wide  field  it  was 
destined  to  range  after  a  few  years.  Who 
was  the  master  spirit  of  the  hour  can  only 
be  surmised.    The  names  of  Anselm,  Lan- 

50 


in  the  *  'Dark  Ages.  *  * 


franc,  William  de  Champeaux,  Abelard 
and  others,  pass  in  celebrated  train  before 
us  in  answer  to  the  question.  Laurie 
finds  even  in  the  rebellion  of  Berengarius 
and  the  rationalism  of  Scotus  sufiicient 
explanation  of  the  great  awakening  as  he 
conceives  it.  This  much,  however,  we  do 
know — that  in  the  monastery  of  Le  Bee, 
in  Normandy,  especially  under  the  regen- 
cies of  Lanfranc  and  Anselm,  the  new 
philosophy  was  chastened  and  wedded  to 
theological  truth  in  a  way  to  establish  its 
practical  value  when  properly  applied  and 
thus  was  furnished  with  credentials  which 
made  it  welcome  wherever  it  went;*  that 
it  was  in  and  about  the  School  of  Paris 
that  the  new  life  was  manifesting  itself 
most  strikingly.  Having  passed  through 
the  various  stages  of  a  long  development, 
that  institution  was  now  preparing  more 
evidently  and  rapidly  than  ever,  under 
the  salutary  influences  of  position  and 
patronage,  to  assume  at  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  century  the  higher  role  of  uni- 
versity, and  thus  merit  for  itself  the  dis- 
tinction of  having  led  off  in  the  great 
transformation  so  near  at  hand.  Inciden- 
tally, and  while  the  scene  is  shifting,  it  is 
interesting  to  observe,  as  an  unmistakable 

*  The  Life  and  Times  of  Saint  Anselm.    Rule. 

51 


Christian  Education 


sig^  of  her  zeal  for  educational  progress, 
how  the  Church,  as  she  had  done  her  ut- 
most to  save  the  relics  of  ancient  learning 
in  the  dark  days  of  barbaric  invasion,  in 
the  present  emergency  contributes  her 
vast  and  varied  influence  towards  lifting 
it  on  to  the  higher  plane  for  which  it  was 
certainly  making, ^^  She  favored  rational 
investigation — the  application  of  philoso- 
phy to  dogma — provided  it  were  distin- 
guished throughout  by  a  humility  and 
faith  which  could  recognize  and  respect 
the  claims  of  revelation  as  against  the  as- 
sumptions of  a  vain  and  unbridled  reason. 
With  her  blessing  and  co-operation,  with 
the  favor  of  the  State  as  well,  with  the 
combined  energies  of  inspirited  multitudes 
the  forces  now  set  in  motion  were  not  to 
be  stopped,  but  moved  on  powerfully  to 
their  appointed  ends — to  their  far-reach- 
ing and  lasting  results.  The  night  had 
passed.     The  day  was  slowly  breaking. 

13  See  Appendix  p.  60,  note  15. 


5* 


(^ppenbi;c. 


Appendix. 


I  "The  custom,"  says  Doctor  Lingard,  "of 
offering  children  to  be  devoted  for  life  to  the 
monastic  or  clerical  profession,  was  early  adop- 
ted in  the  Christian  Church,  in  imitation  of  the 
oblation  of  the  prophet  Samuel  in  the  temple  of 
Jerusalem.  The  idea  that  the  determination  of 
his  parents  was  no  less  binding  on  the  child 
than  the  voluntary  profession  of  adults  was  first 
embraced  in  the  sixth  century,  and  followed 
until  the  pontificate  of  Celestine  III.,  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  more  ancient  discipline,  permit- 
ted the  child  at  a  certain  age  to  decide  for  him- 
self."—iZts^.  and  Antiq.  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church 
p.  23T,  note  6. 

"The  fierce  northern  warriors,"  says  Cardinal 
Newman,  "  who  had  won  for  themselves  the 
Aands  of  Christendom  with  their  red  hands, 
rejoiced  to  commit  their  innocent  offspring  to 
the  custody  of  religion  and  peace.  Nay,  some- 
times with  the  despotic  will  of  which  I  have  just 
now  spoken,  they  dedicated  them,  from  or  betore 
their  birth,  to  the  service  of  Heaven.  They  de- 
termined that  some  at  least  of  thtir  lawless  race 
should  be  rescued  from  the  contamination  of 
blood  and  license,  and  should  be  set  apart  in 
sacred  places  to  pray  for  the  kindred.  The 
little  beings,  of  three  or  four  or  five  years  old, 
were  brought  in  the  arms  of  those  who  gave 
them  life  to  accept  at  their  bidding  the  course 
in  which  that  life  was  to  run.  They  were  brought 
into  the  sanctuary,  spoke  by  the  mouth  of  their 
parents,  as  at  the  font,  put  out  their  tiny  hand 
for  the  sacred  corporal  to  be  wrapped  round  it, 
received  the  cowl  and  took  their  places  as  monks 
in  the  monastic  community.  In  the  first  ages 
of  the  Benedictine  Order,  these  children  were 
placed  on  a  level  with  their  older  brethren. 
They  took  ])recedence  according  to  the  date  of 
their  admission,  and  the  grey  head  gave  way  to 
them  in  choir  and  refectory,  if  junior  to  them  in 
monastic  standing  They  even  voted  in  the 
election  of  Abbot,  being  considered  to  speak  by 
divine  instinct,  as  the  child  who  cried  out, 
'Ambrose  is  Bishop.'  If  they  showed  wayward- 
ness in  community  meetings,  inattention  at 
choir,  ill-behavior  at  table,  which  certainly  was 
not  an  impossible  occurrence,  they  were  cor- 
rected by  the  nods,  the  words,  or  the  blows  of 
the  grave  brother  who  happened  to  be  next 
them;  it  was  not  till  an  after  time  that  they  had 
a  prefect  of  their  own,  except  in  school  hoars. 
That  harm  came  from  this  remarkable  disci- 

55 


Appendix 


pline  is  only  the  suggestion  of  o«r  modern 
habits  and  ideas  ;  that  it  was  not  expedient  for 
all  times,  follows  from  the  fact  that  at  a  certain 
date  it  ceased  lo  be  permitted.  However,  that 
in  those  centuries  in  which  it  was  in  force,  its 
result  was  good  is  seen  in  the  history  of  the 
heroic  men  whom  it  nurtured  and  might  have 
been  anticipated  from  the  principle  which  it 
embodied."  —  Historical  Sketches,  vol.  ii.  art. 
"  The  Benedictine  Schools." 

2  Which  rather  conflicts  with  Mr.  Rmerton's 
amusing  statement  that  Boniface,  for  a  time 
carried  on  his  missions  in  Germany  on  his  own 
account,  but  finding  that  it  would  help  his  enter- 
prise immensely,  eventually  allied  himself  with 
the  Church  of  Rome.  He  says:  "The  famous 
Englishman  Boniface,  the  Apostle  to  the  Ger- 
mans, had  come  over  Irom  England  and  en- 
tered upon  the  work  of  a  missionary  among  the 
Frisians  along  the  shores  of  the  North  Sea. 
From  there  he  had  gone  over  into  the  valleys  of 
the  Main  and  Danube,  and  had  had  remarkable 
success  in  founding  churches  and  monasteries, 
which  were  to  be  so  many  centres  of  light  in 
these  still  barbarous  regions.  For  a  time  he  had 
carried  on  this  work  on  his  own  account,  but 
soon  he  s.uv  that  if  he  could  make  himself  the 
agent  of  Rome  he  would  strengthen  his  cause 
very  greatly.  The  papacy  was  the  more  ready 
to  adopt  him  as  its  own,  because  there  were 
already  missionaries  at  work  in  these  parts  who 
had  taught  a  form  of  Christianity  different  in 
many  ways  from  that  of  Rome.  These  mission- 
aries had  come  from  the  Keltic  church  which  we 
saw  established  in  the  west  of  England  and  in 
parts  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  at  the  time  when 
Augustine  had  carried  the  Roman  form  to  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  and  the  conflict  between  them  and 
Boniface  was  the  same  which  went  on  there 
between  Augustine  and  the  ancient  British 
church.  The  question  in  both  cases  was  the 
same:  Should  Rome  become  the  one  centre  of 
church  life  in  the  West,  or  should  the  life  of  the 
church,  like  that  of  the  state,  gather  about 
several  centres?  Should  there  be  national 
churches,  or  but  one  all-embracing  Church, 
Catholic  of  which  Rome  should  be  the  single 
and  supreme  head?  In  great  partsof  Germany, 
as  in  Great  Britain,  it  had  seemed  as  if  a  local, 
national  church  might  grow  up  quite  indepen- 
dent of  Rome  ;  but  after  the  work  of  Boniface  it 

56 


Appendix 


was  clear  that  the  hold  of  Rome  upon  Germany 
was  fixed  forever."  -  {An  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  the  Middle  Ages  ( 375-814),  b};;  Ephraim 
Emerton,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  History  in  Harvard 
University.  Boston:  Ginn  &  Companv,  1888 
P-  131.) 

3  "After  the  manner  of  a  wise  Solomon,''  says 
an  ancient  writer  speaking  of  Gregory,  "  being 
touched  by  the  sweetness  of  music  he  carefully 
compiled  his  Centon,  or  Antiphonary  of  chants, 
and  established  a  school  of  those  chants  which 
had  hitherto  been  fcung  in  the  Roman  Church, 
and  built  for  this  purpose  two  houses,  one 
attached  to  the  church  of  St.  Peter  the  Apostle 
and  the  other  near  the  Lateran  Patriarchium. 
where,  up  to  this  day,  are  preserved  with  becom- 
ing veneration  the  couch  whereon  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  rest  when  singing;  and  the  rod  where- 
with he  was  accustomed  to  threaten  the  boys, 
together  with  the  authentic  copy  of  his  Anti- 
phonary." —  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars, 
Drane,  p.  60. 

4  '^Rabanus  Maurus  was  about  the  first  to 
comment  on  the  Introduction  of  Porphyry,  and 
on  portions  of  the  Organon.  In  the  year  935, 
whilst  Reinard  of  S.  Burchard,  in  Wurtemburg, 
commented  on  Aristotle's  Categories,  Poppo  was 
elucidating,  at  Fulda,  the  Commentary  ol  Bcethius 
Notker  I^abeo,  who  died  in  1022,  translated  into 
German  the  Commentary  of  Boethius,  and  the 
Categories  and  Interpretation  of  the  Stagr>-rite. 
Abbo  of  Fleury  (1004 )  wrote  a  clever  and  original 
work  on  the  Conclusions  ?in6.  Adelberon,  Bishop 
of  Laon  (1030),  disciple  of  Gerbeit,  wrote  a  dis- 
sertation De  Modo  recte  Argumentandi  et  Prsedi- 
candi  Dialecticam. — St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  Vaughan 
p.  188. 

5  "During  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  the 
church  of  Ireland  stood  in  the  full  beauty  of  its 
bloom.  .  .  .  The  schools  in  the  Irish  Cloisters 
were  at  that  time  the  most  celebrated  in  all  the 
West;  and  in  addition  to  those  which  have  been 
already  mentioned,  there  flourished  the  schools 
of  Saint  Finian  of  Clonard,  founded  in  530,  and 
those  of  Saint  Cataldus,  founded  in  640.  Whilst 
almost  the  whole  of  Europe  was  desolated  by 
war,  peaceful  Ireland,  free  from  the  invasions 
of  external  foes,  opened  to  the  lovers  of  learn- 

57 


Appendix, 


ing  and  piety  a  welcome  asylum.  The  strangers 
who  visited  Ireland  not  only  from  the  neighbor- 
ing shores  of  Britain,  but  also  from  the  most 
remote  nations  of  the  continent,  received  from 
the  Irish  people  the  most  hospitable  reception, 
a  gratuitous  entertainment,  free  instruction, 
and  even  the  books  that  were  necessary  for 
their  studies."— JEfMtory  0/  iht  Church.  Dollinger 
vol.  II.,  p.  31. 

6  The  Scfiools  0/  Charles  the  Oreat,  J.  Bass  Mul- 
linger,  M.A.,  pp.  97-g9;  Scfwola  of  Charlemagne, 
Newman,  Edinburgh  Review,  vol,  151;  Hiat,  Sket., 
vol.  III. 

7  According  to  some  writers.  I^aurie  says  they 
met  at  Padua;  Newman,  at  Pa  via. 

8  We  refer  particularly  to  the  celebrated  Theo- 
dore, Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whose  achieve- 
ments have  been  rightly  said  to  constitute  an 
era  in  the  history  of  the  English  Church.  For 
an  account  of  his  zeal  in  behalf  of  schools  and 
letters,  vide  Conversion  of  the  Teutonic  Race,  Hope, 
c.  xi.;  Newman,  loc.  cU.,  451;  Antiquities  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Church,  c.  11. 

9  The  Episcopal  or  Cathedral  schools  which 
had  almost,  if  not  entirely  disappeared  during 
the  dreadful  period  of  the  barbaric  invasions, 
had  been  gradually  re-established  whenever  or 
wherever  an  altered  condition  of  affairs  a  Uowed. 
Under  the  Merovingians,  according  to  Ozanam, 
at  least  twenty  could  be  enumerated  in  France 
alone.  Charlemagne  ^ave  a  new  impulse  to 
their  revival  and  multiplication.  It  was  in  the 
Assembly  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  in  the  year  789 
that  bishops  received  their  first  command  to 
open,  in  connection  with  their  cathedrals, 
schools  that  were  both  public  and  free.  Allud- 
ing to  their  general  character  at  this  time,  West 
says:  **The  Episcopal  or  Cathedral  schools 
were  neither  so  strict  nor  so  flourishing  as  the 
monastic  schools  whose  exterior  side  they  re- 
sembled, educating  candidates  for  the  priest- 
hood and  children  of  laymen  generally.  .  .  . 
Apart  from  the  rigorous  discipline  of  monastic 
life  exacted  from  thcdblati,  there  is,  however,  no 
essential  distinction  to  be  drawn  between  the 
instruction  furnished  in  the  monasteries  and 
Cathedrals."— .4/Cifct7i  and  the  Rise  of  the  Christian 
Schools,  p,  57. 

58 


Appendix. 


10  •  Adeo  funditus  concidit,"  he  writes,  "  apud 
Centem  Angllcanam  (learning)  ut  paucissimi 
fuerint  cis  Humbrum,  qui  vcl  prcces  suas  com- 
munes in  sermone  Anglico  intelligere  potuerunt 
Tel  scriptum  aliquod  a  I^atino  in  Anglicum  trans- 
ferre:  tarn  sane  pauci  fuerunt,  ut  ne  unum  qui- 
dem  recordari  possim  ex  australi  parte  Thame- 
■is,  turn  cum  ego  regnare  coepcram."  Pastoral 
of  Gregory,  Introduction. 

11  "  The  connection  of  the  University  of  Paris 
with  the  Palatine  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great," 
•ays  Rashdall,  "rests  only  upon  a  series  of  arbi- 
trary assumptions.  The  theory  which  traces  the 
origin  of  Oxford  to  Alfred  the  Great  aspires  to 
a  foundation  in  contemporary  evidence.  The 
Oxford  myth  was  long  accepted  on  the  authority 
of  a  passage  in  the  annals  of  Asser,  Bishop  of 
St.  David's.  The  passage  is  found  neither  in 
any  extant  MS.  nor  in  the  earliest  printed  edi- 
tions, but  made  its  first  appearance  in  Camden's 
Britanniain  1600  a. d.;  whence  three  years  after- 
wards it  was  transferred  to  the  edition  of  Asser. 
The  spuriousness  of  the  passage,  which  is  in- 
deed sufficiently  betrayed  by  its  affected  classi- 
cality  of  style,  was  demonstrated  as  long  as  1843 
in  a  dissertation  appended  to  the  English  trans- 
lation of  Huber's  English  Universities.  The  myth 
recently  received  its  coup  de  grace  at  the  hands 
of  Mr.  James  Parker  {The  Early  History  of  Oxford, 
Oxf.  Hist.  Soc,  1885).  .  .  .  When  the  supposed 
authority  of  Asser  is  put  out  of  court,  the  Alfre- 
dian  legend  even  in  its  simplest  and  least  elabo- 
rate form  cannot  be  traced  further  back  than  the 
Polychronicon  of  Ralph  Higden,  who  died  in 
1363.  In  fact  the  whole  story  with  the  vast  cycle 
of  legend  of  which  it  is  the  nucleus  .  .  . 
may  now  be  abandoned  to  students  of  compara- 
tive mythology  and  of  the  patholopy  of  the 
human  mind." — The  Universities  of  Europe  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  by  Hastings  Rashdall,  vol.  ii.,  part 
ii.,  p.  322,  Oxford,Clarendon  Press. 

12  "En  incipit,"  sa^'S  Baronius,  "annus  Re- 
demptoris  nongentesimus,  tertia  indictione  no- 
tatus,  quo  et  novum  inchoatur  sceculura,  quod  sui 
asperitate  an  boni  sterilitate  ferreum,  malique 
exundantisdeformitate  plutnbeum,  atque  inopia 
scriptorum  appellari  consuevit  obscurum." — 
Anriales  Ecclesiastici,  vol.  x. 

Bellarmine  says  of  it,  "nullum  saeculo  decimo 
indoctius,"-— De  Controversiis.  de  E.  Fontif.  lib. 
iv.,  c.  12. 

59 


Appendix, 


13  Hence  to  avoid  repetition  we  can  afford  to 
be  brief  in  its  description.  Possibly  nothing 
contributed  more  generallv  to  the  realization  of 
educational  results  than  the  hearty  co  operation 
of  the  episcopacy  of  which  one  historian  writes: 
"In  no  age  perhaps,  did  Germany  possess  more 
learned  and  virtuous  churchmen  of  the  episcopal 
order  than  in  the  latter  half  of  the  tenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century." — Introduc- 
tion to  the  Literature  0/  Europe,  Hallam,  vol.  i., 
p.  28. 

14  As  the  eleventh  century  opened  in  the  dark- 
ness of  the  tenth,  so  its  close  ushered  in  the 
dawn  of  an  epoch  ever  memorable  as  a  transi- 
tion period  in  the  history  of  Christian  education. 
The  forces  which  effected  the  tremendous  change 
had  been  silently  and  imperceptibly  at  work  for 
years,  maybe  for  centuries,  meanwhile  held  in 
abeyance  by  the  deplorable  social  and  moral 
condition  of  the  times.  With  the  advent  of  new 
and  more  favorable  circumstances,  however, 
they  were  free  to  declare  themselves  and  did  so 
with  permanent  and  universal  effect.  Nowhere 
was  their  influence  felt  more  lastingly  than  in 
the  schools,  both  monastic  and  cathedral,  which 
from  this  point  on — from  Anselm  to  Peter  the 
IvOmbard — are  scarcely  recognizable  as  identical 
with  their  former  selves.  An  altogether  new 
spirit  had  taken  possession  of  them.  Their  re- 
sources were  being  multiplied  daily,  while  the 
whole  trend  of  their  steady  development  was  in 
the  direction  of  the  universities  into  which  they 
were  to  be  eventually  merged.  Of  their  relation, 
in  transitu,  to  the  universities,  and  of  the  univer- 
sities themselves — their  organization  and  consti- 
tution—we hope  to  speak  somewhat  in  detail 
later.  For  a  summary  account  of  the  transition 
to  which  we  allude,  the  reader  is  referred  to  ^. 
Thomas  of  Aquin,  Vaughan,  pp.  76  77;  EiseandCan- 
stUution  of  Universities,  Laurie  Lect.  vi.,  pp.  gbet 
seq.  For  an  e'aborate  treatment  of  the  entire 
subject,  vid.  History  of  the  Universities  of  the  Middle 
Aqes  before  1400,  Denifle;  The  Universities  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  Rashdall ;  Idea  of  a  University  and 
Rise  and  Progress  of  Universities,  Newman  {Histori- 
cal Sketches,  vol.  iii). 

15  For  an  enumeration  of  various  councils  con- 
vened by  the  Church  in  behalf  of  popular  edu- 
cation, especially  during  the  ninth  centur}',  cf. 
The  Bible  in  the  Middle  Ages.    Buckingham. 

60 


Organizatjoti  of  Smalt  Eibrarlei 

13Y 

AGxNES  WALLACE, 

Under  the  above  caption,  the  Cathedral  Libra- 
ry Association  has  ju&t  published  a  thin  octavo 
volume,  which  will  be  of  great  utility  to  persons 
just  organizing  small  circulating  libraries.  The 
boon  consists  of  practical  hints  drawn  from  ex- 
perience, and  is  compiled  by  Agnes  Wallace,  Li- 
brarian of  tbe  Cathedral  Free  Circulating  Library, 
New  York.  So  many  applications  have  been  re- 
ceived by  the  Cathedral  Library  for  some  account 
of  iU  mataads,  that  this  book  was  compiled  in 
order  to  answer  the  questions  proposed,  and  ^o  to 
save  the  necessity  of  exceedingly  lengthy  commu- 
nications, or  polite  refusals.  The  volume  contains 
not  only  a  description  of  the  practical  work  ot  the 
Library  in  the  cataloguing  and  circulation  of 
books,  but  pasted  in  are  specimens  of  the  various 
printed  forms  in  use  and  illustrations  of  the  meth- 
od used  in  preparing  the  various  cards  that  form 
so  important  a  feature  of  cataloguing  work  in  li- 
braries. To  priests,  and  others  who  are  inexper- 
ienced in  the  practical  details  of  circulating  libra- 
ry work,  the  book  v/ill  prove  of  great  practical 
value,  and  we  cordially  commend  it  to  those  who 
are  interested  in  the  subiect.— Catholic  News,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS. 

How  to  find  good  books  to  buy. 

How  to  classify  the  books — Catalogu- 
ing and  accessioning. 

How  to  keep  track  of  books,  as  issued 
and  when  returned. 

Forms  of  Membership,  Applications, 
Reference  Blanks,  and  Circulation 
Cards. 

Method  of  circulation  tally. 


PRICE,    $1.00    NET. 

£afbedral  Libmy  fmmm  }is%% 

123    EAST    50th    street 
NEW     YORK. 


BOOKS  AND  READING 

By  BROTHER  AZARIAS. 

POURTH  EDITION  ENLARGED 

Contains  Following  Additions  t 

How  to  Read  Dante — Motive  for  Geoff • 
Ellot^s  Novell  —  Peep  Into  TennyBoo's 
Vofkshop—Kathleen  O'Meara. 

With  nemoir  of  the  Author  by 
JOHN  A.  nOONEY,  LL.D. 

Invaluable  as  a  Manual  for  Students  and 
Reading  Circles. 

"Its  object  is  to  show  intelligent  people 
with  a  taste  for  reading  how  to  read  with 
the  best  profit.  It  has  perfect  literary 
form;  it  is  so  thoroughly  practical  that  it 
will  fit  every  temper;  it  not  only  tells  how 
to  read  and  what  to  read,  but  it  abounds 
in  keen  and  delightful  criticism  of  our 
leading  modern  authors.  The  essay  is  a 
notable,  contribution  to  Catholic  American 
literature,  and  it  should  receive  wide- 
spread recognition  from  Catholic  readers 
and  libraries."— TAif  Catholic  World, 

**A  beautiful  specimen  of  the  book- 
maker's art. — The  Catholic  World  [2d 
notice.] 


PRICE,    FIFTY    CENTS,     NET. 


Address  any  Bookseller,  or  sent  postpaid  on 
receipt  of  price  by 

The  Cathedra!   Library  Association, 
123  East  50th  St.,  New  York. 


PEDAGOGICAL   TRUTH    LIBRARY. 

Christian  Bdncationin  the  First  Centuries. 
Price,  10  Cents. 
By  Key.  Eugene  Hagevney,  S.  J. 
In  "Chrittian  Education  in  the  Firtt  OenturUs** 
the  schools  founded  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Church  at  Alexandria,  Cesarea,  Jerusalem.  Antioch, 
etc.,  are  glanced  at,  and  their  growth  and  develop- 
ment traced.    The  gradual  enlargement  of  educa- 
tional privileges  and  the  encouragement  held  out 
to  youth  to  take  advantage  of  them  are  clearly  and 
convincingly  stated.    This  work  is  a  light  amidst 
the  general  ignorance  that  prevails  with  regard  to 
the  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  learning  in  the 
first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
Christian  Sdttcation  in  the  Dark  A^es. 
Price,  10  Cents. 
By  Eev.  Eugene  Magevney,  S-  J. 
''GirUtian  Education  in  the  Dark  Age*"  treats  of 
a  period  of  the  history  of  Catholic  education  that 
has  been  so  persistently  and  unblushingly  maligned 
as  to  leave  in  the  popular  mind  the  belief  of  its 
complete  obscuration.    In  perusing  this  little  book 
the  unbiased  reader  will  be  strongly  convinced  how 
utterly  undeserved  and  unjust  it  is  to  give  to  the 
Ages  of  Faith  the  libellous  appellation  of  Dark  Ages. 
The  Jesnits  as  ^^dncators* 

Price,  10  Cents. 
By  Bev.  Eugene  Magevney,  S.  J. 
In  small  compass,  without  exaggeration,  lucidly, 
forcibly,  and  wuh  erudition,  Father  Magevney  sets 
forth  the  history  and  character  of  the  marvelous 
system  of  education  embodied  in  the  Jesuit  JBaito 
Studiorum.  This  book  will  go  far  to  correct  eiron- 
cous  impressions  gathered  either  from  the  maltreat- 
ment or  imperfect  treatment  of  the  subject  in  peda- 
gogical works.  Its  graceful  style,  cultured  diction, 
skilful  array  of  facts  will,  we  are  sure,  earn  for  it  a 
warm  welcome. 

Giovanni  Baptiata  de  Rossi. 
Founder  of  the  Science  of  Christian  Archaeology. 
Price,  20  Cents. 
By  Very  Bev.  T.  J.  Shahan,  D.  D. 
Dr.  Shahan  has  written  a  notable  contribution  to 
the  literature  of  Archaiology.  It  is  fascinatmg  in  its 
descriptions  of  ancient  life  and  culture,  and  highly 
instructive  in  a  branch  of  learning  that  is  engaging 
the  studious  attention  of  the  best  intellects  of  the  age. 
In  reading  this  book  there  are  conjured  up  before 
our  wondering  senses,  the  men  and  women  of  re- 
mote times,  long  hearsed  in  death,  but  seemingly 
in  the  substance  of  the  flesh,  who  tell  us  of  the  glories 
of  the  Caesars  and  the  sufferings  of  the  Christian 
Martyrs. 


DANTE  and  ^^™^«^--- 

*^  ^  fl  ^  PHILOSOPHY 

In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

By  Fr^d^ric  Ozanam 

Translated  from  the  French  by 
LUCIA  D.  PYSCHOWSKA 
With  a  Preface  by 
JOHN  A.  MOONEY 

PRICE,        -        -        -        SI, SO 


The  association  has  rendered  a  service 
to  literature  in  placing  before  the  public 
one  of  the  most  judicious  commentators  of 
the  greatest    Italian    Poets. 

J.    Card.  Gibbons. 

The  grace  and  beauty  of  its  style  and  the 
profound  erudition  it  displayed  gained  the 
work  recognition  among  readers,  irrespec- 
tive of  creed  ;  and  it  has  taken  its  place 
among  the  enduring  monuments  of  French 
literature  for  the  nineteenth  century, 
while  in  Italy  no  less  than  four  transla- 
tions appeared  within  a  few  years  of  its 
publication.  The  present  English  version 
is  in  every  way  a  worthy  one,  and  retains 
much  of  the  simplicity  and  clearness  of 
the  original  That  "sancta  simplicitas  " 
which  is  the  perfection  of  literary  art,  is 
seen  in  the  chapter  upon  Beatrice,  where- 
in the  author  traces  the  influence  of  wom- 
en in  Christian  society,  and  attributes  to 
the  beautiful  Florentine  a  dual  role,  real 
in  the  poet's  life,  figurative  and  ideal  in 
the  poem.  In  this  tender  and  reverential 
commentary  upon  a  companionship  of 
which  none  has  spoken  evil,  there  is  a 
grace  and  piety  that  should  appeal  to 
many  who  may  not  'agree  with  some  of 
the  author's  abstract  philosophical  con- 
clusions.— iV.  y.  Sun. 


URN 


202  Main  Library 


^■^M 


N  PERIOD  1 
riKjm^  USE 


2 


ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  A 

1 -month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  c 
nth  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  [ 
enewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  d 


DUE 

AS  STAA 

APED  B 

.R9    Wf 

mm,    ' -*  ^ '! 

r 

IAN2;71996 

.livN  y  u  1998 

HAY  0  9  2005 

m9Bh 

m 

A  NO.  DD  6,  40  m,  6'76 


UNIVERSITY  O 


YA  00674 


.y.„lr. BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CDSmDia7D 


■  *v. 


*tSfrr 


ISGd9<: 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LII 


